Lunch and Learn Lecture Videos

The Centennial Lunch and Learn Lecture series, delivered by School historian Karen Kruse Thomas, concluded on June 7, 2016.

The full series, in which Thomas chronicles the School's evolution over the past century, is an invaluable historical resource.

Session 9: Sex, Drugs & Public Health: How Social & Behavioral Sciences Became a Core Public Health Discipline - May 12, 2016

Learn about the School's role in Alfred Kinsey's famous mid-twentieth century studies of human sexuality and in the creation of the nation's first substance counseling program.

Session 8: The Glass Menagerie: Animals' Central Role in the History of JHSPH - April 14, 2016

Learn how sheep, ducklings, turtles and a 5,000 gallon seal tank are part of the School's story.

Session 7: The Advocacy & the Ecstasy: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Impact on National Health Policy - March 17, 2016

From the Social Security Act to the Affordable Care Act, School faculty have played key roles in drafting, passing and implementing legislation that has shaped America's health system and public health education and research.

The Centennial Lunch and Learn is a series of monthly talks on the history of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health by Karen Thomas, school historian. The series runs from September 2015 through June 2016. Session No. 6 discusses focuses on how the school faculty and alumni played integral roles in creating, leading and developing the cornerstone agencies of public health.

Session 5: 100 Years of Technology & Computing in Public Health - January 21, 2016

From the Monroe-matic calculator to the multimedia studio used to record online Coursera lectures, technology has been at the center of the School's work to educate public health professionals.

Session 4: The Making of the MPH: Curricula and Student Life at JHSPH - December 8, 2015

Session No. 4 focuses on how the MPH degree became the School's flagship degree program and the standard credential for public health professionals. Karen also looks at how the MPH curriculum and student life have evolved from the doctors-only days to the diverse backgrounds and experiences of today’s class.

JHSPH faculty have set the terms for the conversation on health risks behind the major 20th-century killers: cancer, stroke, heart disease, and injury. Learn how faculty such as Morton Levin, William Cochran, Abe Lilienfeld, George Comstock, Leon Gordis, Moyses Szklo, Jonathan Samet, Scott Zeger, Susan Baker, and Stephen Teret have fought to identify and reduce the most widespread risks, from cigarettes to handguns.

Session 2 - The School and the City: Baltimore's Impact on Public Health - October 15, 2015

The Eastern Health District was once the centerpiece of the School’s landmark work on the social epidemiology of the family, which framed the development of the International Classification of Diseases and won the faculty its first Lasker Award in 1949. But the final joint survey of the EHD in 1947 by JHSPH and the Baltimore City Health Department proved disastrous. Learn why the EHD rose in the 1930s and fell in the 1950s, and how JHSPH has since applied those lessons in its community research, including the WIC federal nutrition program and the MACS and ALIVE studies on HIV/AIDS.

Session 1 - William Henry Welch - September 23, 2015

Session No. 1 focuses on William Henry Welch, the founding dean. Thomas discusses why the school was originally named the School of Hygiene and Public Health, why Welch emphasized the importance of the basic sciences for public health, and how Welch’s predictions for the future of public health came true.